[IAEP] maths instruction

[Kathy Pusztavari]

Yes Maria, I'm sure you are correct that I'm mixing up pedagogy
(methodology) with framework.  They seem to fit together like hands to
gloves.

That said, Direct Instruction (DI) is also a framework.  It's like Prego -
it's all in there.

In addition, behaviorism, or Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and DI share
much in common including research bases.  I'm a Board Certified Associate
Behavior Analyst (BCABA) and to take the exam for certification it does have
several questions on Direct Instruction. 
 
I will not teach in the public sector.  I will, however, volunteer or create
a afterschool or summer school program.  I'd love to use sugar (SoaS) to
test some of the activities and do some research.  We need more educational
research even if it is very small.

"'- You are all individuals! - Yes, we are all individuals!'"

Funny.  It took a couple seconds until I got it :)

-Kathy
-----Original Message-----
From: iaep-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org
[mailto:iaep-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org] On Behalf Of Maria Droujkova
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 11:04 AM
To: Kathy Pusztavari
Cc: iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org
Subject: Re: [IAEP] maths instruction

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Kathy Pusztavari
<kathy at kathyandcalvin.com> wrote:
> Bloom's Taxonomy reminds me of committees that never get anything done 
> in the Life of Brian.
>
> Direct Instruction reminds me of the people that get in there and get 
> the job done.

Here is how I see these issues. Bloom's Taxonomy is a part of a research and
design framework, and direct instruction is a pedagogical methodology. In
general, frameworks help people analyze and plan, and methodologies help
people to implement ("get things done"). Typically, you need to work with
both methodologies and frameworks for sizable research and development
projects. Depending on the project's goals, you make or choose frameworks
and methodologies suitable to the goals.
Constructivism, in particular, is a group of framework for studying how
people learn. To contrast direct instruction with something, one can choose
a different teaching methodology, for example, the discovery method popular
in the sixties and seventies but not as much anymore, or the Socratic method
still popular in some circles after a couple of millenia.

Relationships between frameworks and methodologies are complex. For example,
one can use constructivist frameworks to study how students learn under
direct instruction methodologies. One can also use behaviorist or
information theory frameworks to study learning under the same
methodologies. It's not a one-to-one correspondence. There is a lot of
confusion about the matter, because people use theories and frameworks not
only for research, but also as ammo in policy wars.
Also, sometimes the same person or group works on developing theories and
methodologies, and they become twined in people's minds through their
authors. In general, relationships between theory and practice are
complicated and often frustrating in education, just as they are in medicine
and other human-centered fields.

The important thing is for everybody to be able to match frameworks and
methodologies to their goals. For example, at some point I made a taxonomy
of computer learning environments focusing specifically on users' power over
representations, because my goals had to do with authoring, and creating
representations is a good measure of authoring. I think it may be of
interest to people here:
http://wikieducator.org/User:MariaDroujkova/UserPower

Life of Brian is wonderful - one of my favorite movies. Very quotable.
"- You are all individuals! - Yes, we are all individuals!" - this could be
used to snark recitation, but I happen to find the technique very useful.

Kathy, congratulations on your license!!! What grades do you plan to teach
next?


--
Cheers,
MariaD

Make math your own, to make your own math.

http://www.naturalmath.com social math site http://www.phenixsolutions.com
empowering our innovations _______________________________________________
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep